India's razed mosque wrangle sparks fresh furor

Muslim activists of All India Babri Masjid Rebuilding Committee rally near Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday

December 6, 2000
Web posted at: 9:44 PM HKT (1344 GMT)

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Indian opposition lawmakers stalled parliament for a third consecutive day on Wednesday by demanding the resignation of three ministers over the demolition of a 16th-century Muslim mosque by Hindu zealots.

But Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee hit back in the corridors of parliament later, ruling out any resignations and saying that efforts to construct a Hindu temple on the rubble of the Babri Masjid were an "expression of national feeling."

"There is no relevance in the demand for resignation of the three ministers," he told reporters.

Security was tight in the northern town of Ayodhya, where the Babri Mosque was razed exactly eight years ago, but there were no reports of unrest.

Thousands of Hindus gathered in the holy town for the anniversary, pledging to construct a multi-pillared temple at the site they believe was the birthplace of their god-king Rama.

The ministers accused over the demolition, which triggered rioting that left some 3,000 people dead, are Home (interior) Minister Lal Krishna Advani, Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Sports Minister Uma Bharti.

All three are members of Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling coalition.

"We want resignation! We want resignation!" opposition deputies chanted in the lower house of parliament, forcing the speaker to adjourn proceedings for the day.

"Today is a black day in the history of India. These three ministers are directly involved in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has proved it." said Ramesh Chainthal, a Congress member of parliament.

The upper house was also adjourned for the day following an uproar by opposition lawmakers on the same issue.

Congress wants the ministers to step down until they are cleared of involvement in the incident by the courts.

The mosque case is mired in a legal tangle and a verdict is not expected any time soon: according to one report, the court has to sift through more than 60 kg of documentary evidence and 100 audio and video tapes and question some 800 witnesses.

The BJP accused the main opposition party of disrupting parliament "in the vain hope of gaining badly needed political mileage," and said that it had become a "sad ritual" for Congress to launch a tirade against the BJP every December 6.

"The BJP has also along maintained...that the Ayodhya movement was a political movement," BJP President Bangaru Laxman said in a statement. "Such participation cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be construed as a sufficient ground for demanding a minister's resignation."

The BJP put its controversial ambitions, including the construction of a temple at Ayodhya, on the backburner when it took power with a raft of smaller parties in 1998. But there was no suggestion of that in Vajpayee's comments on Wednesday.

"The work on construction of a temple...is an expression of national feeling which has not been completed," he said.

A key Hindu revivalist constituent of the government warned the BJP not to compromise on the Ayodhya issue.

Press Trust of India quoted a senior leader of the Shiv Sena party as saying in a letter to Home Minister Advani that "the Hindus of this country are not able to digest the manner in which you have forgotten Lord Ram...for the sake of power."

In Ayodhya, police Deputy Inspector General R.N. Singh said the situation was "normal and peaceful."

He said about 200 anti-riot personnel and over 1,500 police had been deployed in and around the Uttar Pradesh state town.

In one corner of the town, expert sculptors have been chiselling tirelessly at massive stone blocks for years in preparation for the day when they will erect their shrine.

The VHP says the 16th century Muslim Mughal ruler Babar pulled down a Hindu temple at the disputed spot and erected a mosque in its place.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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